Can I/How to... call a protected function outside of a class in PHP

Question

I have a protected function that is defined within a certain class. I want to be able to call this protected function outside of the class within another function. Is this possible and if so how may I achieve it

class cExample{

   protected function funExample(){
   //functional code goes here

   return $someVar
   }//end of function

}//end of class


function outsideFunction(){

//Calls funExample();

}

Answer 1

Technically, it is possible to invoke private and protected methods using the reflection API. However, 99% of the time doing so is a really bad idea. If you can modify the class, then the correct solution is probably to just make the method public. After all, if you need to access it outside the class, that defeats the point of marking it protected.

Here's a quick reflection example, in case this is one of the very few situations where it's really necessary:

<?php
class foo { 
    protected function bar($param){
        echo $param;
    }
}

$r = new ReflectionMethod('foo', 'bar');
$r->setAccessible(true);
$r->invoke(new foo(), "Hello World");